Huckabee: Dred Scott Decision ‘Remains To This Day The Law Of The Land’ (AUDIO)

Republican presidential candidate and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee said on Wednesday that the Supreme Court decision that upheld slavery “remains to this day the law of the land.”

Huckabee appeared on conservative radio host Michael Medved’s show to defend Kentucky county clerk Kim Davis, who went to jail for contempt of court after refusing to issue same-sex marriage licenses. The former governor compared the Supreme Court’s recent decision to legalize same sex marriage to the Dred Scott decision, which upheld slavery.

“Michael, the Dred Scott decision of 1857 still remains to this day the law of the land which says that black people aren’t fully human,” he told the radio host. “Does anybody still follow the Dred Scott Supreme Court decision?”

Medved corrected Huckabee, noting that the Dred Scott ruling was later overturned by a constitutional amendment.

“Well the Dred Scott decision was overturned by the 13th amendment and if you go look at the Lincoln-Douglas debates in 1858 right after the Dred Scott decision was adjudicated, Governor — and seriously it’s right there — Lincoln says, ‘we must respect this decision as the will of the court but I think it was wrongly decided and now we must overcome it.’”

(Medved got his history wrong — the 13th amendment abolished slavery, but the 14th amendment overturned the Supreme Court decision.)

The host asked Huckabee if he became president whether he would try to overturn the Supreme Court’s same-sex marriage decision with a constitutional amendment.

“I don’t think that’s necessary,” Huckabee told the radio host because it is a decision, “not borne out by the will of the people either through their elected people and gone through the process.”

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Sara Jerde is a newswriter based in New York. Her bylines have appeared in The Star-Ledger, The Chronicle of Higher Education and The Columbus Dispatch. She graduated from Ohio University. Send emails to sara@talkingpointsmemo.com and follow her @SaraJerde.